BILLINGS - Yellowstone County Commissioners chose Naarah Hastings to represent House District 50 after Mallerie Stromswold resigned the seat.
Yellowstone County District Court Judge Ashely Harada swore in Hastings at the commissioner meeting on Tuesday.
Hastings and her husband own Proof Donuts & Cofee in Billings and she founded the talent acquisition firm, 6H Talent, Inc.
The Yellowstone County Republican Central Committee submitted three names for the commissioners to consider.
Anthony Nicastro, a civil attorney and managing partner with Knight, Nicastro and McKay, and Denis Pitman, former Yellowstone County Commissioner and Billings City Council member were the other candidates.
Stromswold was one of Montana’s youngest lawmakers – 19 – when elected to her first term in 2020. In her letter, she said she was proud to bring a different perspective to legislative debates, as a young female college student.
However, she also cited the challenge of affording to be a student and legislator at the same time, keeping two homes and traveling between them. In addition, she said she had “faced significant backlash from members of my caucus because I did not fall in line.”
Watch Stromswold explain why she vacated the seat in the video below.
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